Outcry over banana prices 07/07/2014 Smallholder banana farmers dotted across Manicaland province have lamented lack of competitive prices of bananas on the market despite initial high production cost. Banana farmers, who have over the years adopted improved agricultural practices such as the use of irrigation systems, increase in acreage and quality banana seedling, say the market price is too low and fear might be forced out of business. Farmers voiced their concerns at a public meeting organised by the Election Resource Centre at Marevo primary school in Honde Valley. ERC - a think tank and advocacy institution on elections and democracy in Zimbabwe – is engaging communities to ensure citizen participation. Driving around in the mountainous rural areas of Honde Valley in Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, what one finds is unexpected, one is genuinely surprised to see how much activity happening - people are getting on with things. A number of smallholder banana farmers have done remarkably well, the extraordinary resilience, and their willingness to experiment and innovate is also clear, the story is much more positive, however, poor prices might thwart their dream. Tsitsi Dembaremba of Chapinduka village under Chief Zindi said apart from high production costs there is also no immediate market as they have to travel to Harare to sell their produce. “A sack full of bananas cost US$10 to transport it. Those that offload demand US$0.50. At the market we pay US$10 and a dollar is charged by those who sweep at the place in addition the woman at the toilet then charge US$3 and after the market we even fail to settle our debts. We are working harder than hard here - its suicide, but we can’t even buy bathing soap even lotions that we require. We can’t even buy blankets,” Dembaremba lamented. Hamutsari Bvitira (49) from the same village said she now looks older than her real age because of the hard work that is not compensated with better prices at the end of the day. “I am not too old but look at me I now look older than my real age because of poverty,” she said. She said a bag of the required fertilizer is costing US$45 which she said was too high considering the market price of bananas. Not everyone has engaged in successful farming, and new forms of social differentiation are emerging on the rural community. There are successes which have thus far gone largely unrecorded. Through commitment, courage and much hard work rural people are soldiering on. Joseph Mambodo, A 29-year old youth, from Chapinduka village started growing bananas last year and this year has a plantation of 750 banana fruit trees and says he has no option that’s why he continue growing bananas. He said bananas are being bought at 33 cents for grade A bananas per kg, 30 cents for grade B and 27 cents for grade C. Depending on the quality and weight of the bananas, five to six bananas can make a kg but if they are of poor quality one require 10 to 15 bananas to have a kg. Mambodo said a better price that they expect their bananas to be bought at per kg is US$0.40. He says together with his wife have been working hard for years to ensure that they get water into the plantation from the nearby mountains. For many years, however, poverty has cast its long shadow over most families forcing some breadwinners to leave in pursuit of greener pastures elsewhere after the collapse of most of the irrigation schemes. A banana plant takes about nine months to mature and produce bananas. Agriculture has always been a major part of Zimbabwe’s diverse economy, along with mining, tourism and manufacturing. Ends//
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 09:47:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015